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Dodgeball tournament benefits ‘Pink Zone’

Aubrey Butts | Wednesday, December 7, 2011

After learning about Niemann-Pick Type C (NPC) disease at a lecture this fall, sophomore Ashley Barraza contacted Dean of Science Gregory Crawford, who biked cross-country with his wife the two previous summers to raise awareness for the disease, with an interest in giving back.

During the brainstorming process, an event to benefit NPC morphed into a benefit for breast cancer and the inaugural “Dodge Stress, Fight Cancer” dodgeball tournament was born.

The event took place Wednesday night at the Rolf’s Sports Recreation Center.

“Increasing breast cancer awareness and discovering ways to fight this disease is a really important cause, especially at Notre Dame,” Barraza said. “Dean Crawford really supports this initiative, so we wanted to raise awareness and help monetarily in a small way.”

Barraza and Crawford ultimately decided to support Pink Zone, a national initiative dedicated to raising funds for breast cancer awareness in women’s basketball, on campuses and in communities, according to the Notre Dame athletics website.

Barraza credited Crawford with conceiving the idea for a dodgeball tournament.

“Playing dodgeball was Dean Crawford’s idea. After seeing some students playing at Rolfs one day, he said it looked like a lot of fun,” Barraza said. “We both thought joining dodgeball with fundraising was unique and an effective way to target a wide range of students.”